More than four thousand blues guitarists nationwide were confident enough to at least enter the national Guitar Center chain’s annual search for the country’s greatest undiscovered blues guitar player.

The 25 still in the running include Lubbock musician Dustin LeRoy Garrett, 22, who suffered a bit of first-timer’s intimidation before being eliminated last year.

That won’t happen this year, he said.

Garrett has been playing guitar for 15 years, but it wasn’t until he turned 18 and enrolled at South Plains College in Levelland that he took a serious interest in blues music.

Garrett made his bones as a country musician and said he also “went through a short-lived modern rock phase.” But he explained that it was while he was studying to earn a degree in guitar from SPC, “that I first began researching where all of this music came from. I learned about the blues from my teachers out at South Plains and, since then, the most expressive music that I can play on guitar has always been blues.”

He also has been the mainstay in a band called Dustin Garrett & The Texas Cruisers for the past 11 years, a band that has changed personnel as its focus shifted from country to rock to blues. Garrett’s father, Mike, has been in the band from the beginning.

But Garrett is on his own while pursuing Guitar Center’s title of King of the Blues.

“Last year, I got to the third round and lost,” said Garrett. He could take consolation, however, in the fact that he was named first runner-up, and the guitarist who defeated him, Kirby Kelley, went on to win the whole shebang and earn that aforementioned King of the Blues moniker.

It was a learning experience in other ways, as well.

The young West Texan said, “Once you get past the early rounds, Guitar Center treats you like royalty. The first class air flights, the limo rides, the hotels — all of that, I feel now, intimidated me a little bit.

“This year, I’m not so blown away by all that. I am treating every stage of the competition like it is just another gig. Only instead of wanting to please an audience, this time I am trying to please judges. And if I should lose, hey, I’m not kidding when I say it’s been an honor just to compete with so many great guitarists.”

So far, though, Garrett’s experience and talent find him on fire.

Garrett explained that more than 200 Guitar Center stores nationwide are participating. The stores release a selection of backing tracks online; each guitarist downloads the one he likes best and then begins rehearsing with his guitar and that backing music.

For Garrett, that always means he’s reaching for one of his Strats.

Gibson Guitars is one of the contest sponsors and, indeed, Garrett already has won some nice Gibson and Epiphone gear. But he remains most comfortable playing a Fender Stratocaster.

The 2010 contest began in May and the Lubbock musician had no trouble impressing judges at the first preliminary round and then the store final, both in Lubbock. That propelled him into the familiar third round once again: the district finals.

Held in Austin on June 24, district finals found Garrett just one of more than 200 finalists in this part of the country. This year ... he won. He is representing Texas.

Next up: regional finals. Slated to take place on July 15 in Dallas, this competition will pit Garrett against only four contestants from four surrounding states.

The winner will be one of the nation’s top five contestants heading to Hollywood in September to participate in the grand finals for an impressive prize package.

Just consider: A check for $25,000 cash. Endorsement deals from Gibson, Ernie Ball, Boss and Egnater. A write-up in Guitar World magazine. And the gear: A Gibson 1960 Anniversary ES-335, an Epiphone 1965 Elitist Casino, an Egnater Renegade full-stack amplifier and a Boss GT-10 Guitar Multi-Effects Processor, with effects pedals.

Not bad. Garrett said, “Once you make it to the third round, the prizes are very nice.” Indeed, last month’s district victory over competition from Texas and New Mexico found him winning about $1,700 in gear, including an Epiphone Sheraton guitar and amp.

“But what the final winner gets is unbelievable,” he said.

Facing regional finals, he feels “much more confident.” Garrett explained, “Last year, I lost to one of the greatest slide guitar players I’d heard, and he basically won the thing by playing two slides at once. Since then, I spent time researching the history of slide-playing and Delta blues. I’ve done extensive workouts with slide, and I am incorporating that into what I plan to play.

“I’m looking forward to the competition.”

Yet there is much more happening in Garrett’s life: a farewell concert, relocation, a new band — and, somewhat ironically, despite his blues pursuit, he will return to the country music format.

On Aug. 1, he and his wife, Kristi, will move away from Lubbock for the first time, make a new home in Weatherford and join Dallas-based group The Taylor Hickey Band. It will be the first time that Garrett and Kristi, who plays fiddle, will be members of the same band — and a one-year tour already has been confirmed.

Meanwhile, Dustin Garrett & The Texas Cruisers, who played last night before and after Buffalo Spring Lake’s fireworks show, have a farewell gig planned on July 30 at Jake’s.

“I spent 11 years playing with some of the greatest musicians I know,” said Garrett. “I am hoping that everyone who played in all of the different variations of the band will show up. We are good friends, we recorded an album together; it will be tough to leave.

“But with the Dallas band, I plan to showcase more of what I can do on guitar. I’m also getting into band management. Plus I mixed their CD, and wrote all of the songs on it. And again, I’ll be playing with friends, guys from school (South Plains College).”

The Taylor-Hickey Band’s self-titled country debut will be released in September.

Garrett — who credits Lubbock musician Mike Carroway for making him want to learn to play guitar when he was 7 — said he wanted to tell both of his parents at the same time about his plans. His mom, Tammy, took it hard; no mother likes to say goodbye to a son.

“Both my parents started my in the music business when I was 5,” he said. “It was difficult telling them that this is something that we’re called on to do. This is a chance for Kristi and me to play together. And I want to have a go at being successful in a national market.”

Garrett and his wife are newlyweds, having shared marriage vows in December 2009. One cannot help but wonder about their plans, should Garrett actually proceed to win $25,000 as Guitar Center’s King of the Blues.

Like any couple, they surely had daydreamed about it.

“If by God’s grace I am able to win this contest,” said Garrett, “Yes, Kristi and I have talked about it. We have a few debts we want to take care of. But we decided together that, basically, we want to split whatever cash I win between our two families. They both have taken care of us.”

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